In a recent interview with NPR, the president was asked about previous baseball metaphors he has used to described his foreign policy of “hitting singles and doubles” instead of home runs. He tried to answer in the form of another baseball metaphor, but failed. From the transcript [emphasis added]:

It’s interesting, though, you know, the comment I made about singles and doubles I think is — is only a partial quote. What I said was that when it comes to foreign policy, that oftentimes the United States has made mistakes not by showing too much restraint but by underestimating how challenging the environment is out there, not thinking through consequences, that there is a lot of blocking and tackling to foreign policy, to change sports metaphors, or, if you want to stick to baseball, that a lot of what you want to do is to advance the ball on human rights, advance the ball on national security, advance the ball on energy independence, to put the ball in play.

Wrong. One does not “advance” the ball in baseball. A batter can “put the ball in play”—at least that part is correct—but baseball is basically the only (ball) sport in which the phrase “advance the ball” makes no sense. He was likely attempting to say something along the lines of “advance the base-runners,” or “advance one base at a time.” That would make sense.